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From YouTube: BOF: Growing a Community (Leveraging Meetups to Educate, Grow, and Facilitate Conversation)
Description
BOF: Growing a Community (Leveraging Meetups to Educate, Grow, and Facilitate Conversation) - Lee Calcote, Twistlock
About Lee Calcote
Lee Calcote is an innovative thought leader, passionate about developer platforms and management software for clouds, containers, infrastructure and applications. Advanced and emerging technologies have been a consistent focus through Calcote’s tenure at SolarWinds, Seagate, Cisco and Pelco. An author, writer, speaker and organizer of technology meetups and conferences, he is active in the tech community.
Join us for KubeCon + CloudNativeCon in Barcelona May 20 - 23, Shanghai June 24 - 26, and San Diego November 18 - 21! Learn more at https://kubecon.io. The conference features presentations from developers and end users of Kubernetes, Prometheus, Envoy and all of the other CNCF-hosted projects.
A
Hello
good,
it
works
we're
on
perfect.
We
are
so.
This
is
my
first
birds
of
a
feather,
so
we'll
see
how
engaging
and
discussion
creating
we
can
be.
How
many
of
you
guys
have
been
to
a
birds
of
a
feather
before?
Is
anybody?
Ok,
so
good?
I'm
going
to,
I
may
lean
on
you
for
the
style
by
which
we
interact.
A
I've
got
I'm,
hoping
to
just
really
facilitate
a
conversation
today,
maybe
bring
some
thoughts
and
maybe
more
questions
and
answers
about
really
the
notion
that
I'm
community
engagement
is
it's
pretty
pretty
important
and
being
purposeful
about
it.
I
think
is
you
know
something
that
a
number
of
companies
have
recognized:
they've
got
developer,
developer,
advocates
and
evangelists,
and,
and
you
various
titles
by
which
and
organizations
under
which
those
companies
engage,
the
community
I
end
up
doing
a
fair
bit
of
it
myself
and
here's.
Actually
this
isn't.
Actually.
A
This
is
just
a
little
bit
about
me
so,
to
the
extent
that
you
care
to
heckle
me
later-
or
you
know,
poke
at
me,
I,
please
do
I
rarely
bite,
I,
end
up
being
I'm
kind
of
engaged
in
a
wearing
a
bunch
of
different
hats.
I'm
generally
engaged
in
the
tech
community,
currently
over
at
SolarWinds,
doing
some
technology
technology
strategy
there,
but
end
up
doing
some
writing
and
podcasting
and
other
things
pertinent
to
our
discussion.
A
This
is
kind
of
a
lot
of
my
community
involvement,
I'm
from
Austin
Texas
or
at
least
over
the
last
nine
years
or
so,
and
decent
tech
community
out
there
there's
a
nice
little
startup,
vibe,
downtown
and
then
outside
of
downtown
there's.
Also
just
some
of
the
some
of
the
larger
tech
corporations
that
have
presence,
aren't
necessarily
downtown
but
are
kind
of
on
the
outskirts,
and
so
Austin,
like
other
places
in
Texas,
ends
up
being
geographically
dis,
distributed.
A
It
takes
about
40
minutes
or
so
to
go
to
from
one
end
to
the
next,
which
is
a
topic.
I
want
to
kind
of
talk
to
you
guys
about
or
speak
with
you
about
venue
selection
and
how
becomes
important
as
you
go,
to
build
community
anyway.
These
are
the
ones
that
just
I'm
engaged
in
most
of
which
are
in
Austin,
so
I'm
a
just
even
for
full
disclosure,
I'm,
a
co-organizer
of
dr.
Austin
and
organizer
of
micro
services
and
containers
Austin,
and
so
a
very
container
e-type
focus.
A
We
end
up
doing
getting
engaged
with
just
some
other
local
geeks
in
the
community
there
as
well
and
I've,
got
a
couple
of
kind
of
local
things
between
container
days,
Austin
DevOps
days,
Austin
type
of
a
thing,
we're
fortunate
in
Austin,
and
that
there
are
just
a
lot
of
technologists
a
lot
of
software
engineers,
a
lot
of
developers
and
operators
and
others
into
tech.
And
so,
if,
for
anything,
maybe
we're
we
suffer
from
having
too
many
of
the
same
overlapping
meetups
and
things.
A
And
so
I
want
to
ask
you
guys
some
questions
really,
because
this
is
probably
less
about
me.
Speaking
at
you
and
more
just
speaking
with
you,
because
if
we
are
nope
so
we've
got
a
I
would
have
been
well
serviced
by
bringing
my
power
adapter
with
me
today,
but
so
so
yeah.
This
is
more
less
me
speaking
at
you
more
me,
hopefully
talking
with
you,
but
just
some
questions
so
which
of
you
guys
tend
to
frequent
meetups.
A
You
guys
been
to
meet
ups
before
tend
to
find
value
in
them
and
if
you
guys
don't
make
it
interactive,
this
is
going
to
die
quickly
but
yea,
very
good,
ok,
fair
enough!
So
there's
you
know,
meetups
are
running
in
different
ways,
but
you
know
a
lot
of
times.
Actually
let
me
maybe
speak
to
my
experience
about
the
general
format
that
I
find
an
enemy
safe.
This
resonates
with
your
experience
and
how
you've
you
know
of
the
meetups
you've
been
to
a
lot
of
times
they
sort
of
generally
open
up.
Can
I
talk
about
whoo-hoo.
A
The
group
is
their
purpose.
Maybe
asks
for
announcements
from
the
community
of
people
are
looking
for
jobs
or
are
offering
up
jobs
to
just
kind
of
generally
announced
an
exchange
end
up
having
one
to
two
presenters.
They
hopefully
do
a
demo,
hopefully
they're,
not
selling
at
you
necessarily
there's.
Ideally
some
food.
Some
beverages
is
that
kind
of
this
stint.
You
know
you
kind
of
kind
of
that.
A
Your
typical
format
that
you
guys
are
used
to
saying
and
it
just
okay,
we're
going
to
talk
about
some
other
formats
and
and
maybe
explore
get
your
opinion
on
whether
or
not
some
some
are
better
than
others.
So
the
next
question
is
what
you
guys
are
looking
to
maybe
found
a
community
or
begin
to
organize
one
and
you
guys
kind
of
you
know
organizing
kind
of
co-organized
and
helping
do
some
today:
yeah,
okay
and
then
yeah,
so
I
guess
I
already
asset,
so
good.
A
Alright,
so
I
don't
know
that
this
is
necessarily
a
blueprint
for
success,
but
these
are
some
of
the
questions.
You've
gotta,
think
about
and
address
as
you
go
to
either
establish
a
new
community
or
just
kind
of
grow.
Your
existing
one
I,
don't
know
that
I've
got
necessarily
the
right
recipe.
I've
been
doing
it
for
a
little
while,
but
so
one
of
the
things
that
I
even
sort
of
struggle
with
is
one
of
things
I
was
just
talking
about,
which
is
the
which
is
format
of
the
of
the
meetup
itself.
A
So
I
don't
know
if
this
is
honestly
an
open
question.
On
my
end,
I
don't
know-
I
don't
have
the
answer
here,
but
it's
does
consistency,
maybe
meeting
at
the
same
time
the
same
date
the
same
place
is
that
consistency,
just
like
kind
of
like
a
stand-up,
just
sort
of
like
hey
you
go
to
the
same
place
same
time
every
day.
It's
just
it
becomes
that
rather
routine
and
habit.
A
Does
that
really
like
build
trust
and
kind
of
build
a
sense
of
community
for
that
group,
or
does
that
begin
to
paint
your
community
with
either
like
the
venue
that
you're
at
so
maybe
I
just
give
a
specific
example
of
a
couple
of
meetups
that
we
have
I
think
this
actually
works
well
and
one
of
the
meetups
that
I
am
engaged
with
his
daugher
Austin
and
we're
fortunate
to
host
it
in
Austin.
There's
a
track
space
there's
to
rackspace
offices
in
Austin.
A
There's
one
way
on
the
north
end
of
town,
which
is
kind
of
what
I
was
going
to
try
to
ask
you
guys.
One
is
location,
ends
up
being
kind
of
important
to
us
in
Austin
anyway,
people
don't
necessarily
the
traffic
isn't
so
great.
There's
other
great
things
about
Austin,
but
maybe
not
traffic
location
ends
up
being
an
issue
for
us,
so
whether
you're
north
or
in
the
downtown.
You
find
a
different
you're.
A
Typically
folks
may
not
make
that
drive
and
or
just
can't,
because
the
traffic's
just
in
the
way,
but
let
me
use
them-
maybe
dr.
Austin,
as
an
example
of
its
in
the
Rackspace
building
up
north
every
first
thursday
of
the
month,
starts
at
six-thirty
and
it's
such
and
such
and
it's
just
you
know
it's
just
like:
we've
got
them
pre-scheduled
out
to
what
I,
even
if
we
don't
have
an
agenda
and
speakers
lined
up
or
sponsors
lined
up.
A
A
B
A
B
C
A
B
D
You
like
it
depends
on
where
you
reside,
because
in
New
York
is
really
hard
to
add
it
in
the
same
place
all
the
time,
because
if
you
haven't
Manhattan,
you
know
yet
everybody
coming
from
outside
they're
trying
to
to
get
in
and
that
can
be
hard.
But
if
you're
you
know
downtown
it's
hard
to
get
out
so
the
doctor
community,
there
is
huge
to
play
150
people.
There
are
a
few
other
people
there
or
something
like
that.
D
From
the
neighboring
areas
to
be
able
to
conveniently,
on
the
other
hand,
I
think
would
maybe
make
more
sense
have
it.
You
know
the
third
thursday
of
every
month
at
it's
in
the
same
place
or
the
same
place,
but
what
I
struggle
with
and
I
would
love
to
hear
you
guys
so
I'm
on
the
almost
I'm,
a
business
sales
guy
amount
of
technology,
so
I
go
to
learn
about.
D
D
Showing
that,
but
not
so
much
that
here,
hey
I,
got
a
yellow
my
pocket.
What
it's
not
nothing
just
come
talk
to
me.
We
take
credit
cards,
but
you
get
what
I'm
saying
and
so
I,
sometimes
I,
and
so
the
last
opportunity.
There
are
three
different
presenters
and
they
really
did
run
the
gamut
from
you
know
just
showing
a
demo
how
something
worked
with
docker
vs
we've
been
in
business
for
two
and
a
half
year.
We
got
you
know
very
few
employees
that
know.
A
A
Others
may
have
comments,
but
to
me,
like
one
of
the
delineations
that
you
can
use
I
think
our
is
like
yet,
but
his
population
of
the
the
area
that
you're
having
the
the
venue
or
the
the
meetup
in
the
city
and
its
size
and
its
tech.
How
much
tech
is
there
because
yeah
it
for
Lu
of
map,
talk
to
others
actually
at
least
from
Dino
trace,
was
just
in
the
back
and
he's
he's
from
Austria.
He
says
they
have
to
to
technical
meetups
in
the
area.
A
One
is
JavaScript
or
the
other
one
is
sort
of
the
catch-all
for
everything
else
and
you
like
to
them.
I
think
they'd,
prob
they'd
be
welcoming
of
just
even
if
it
is
just
as
flat
out
cell
or
something
just
even
just
to
learn
it
and
understand
it,
and
in
part,
when
you,
it's
kind
of
to
me,
feels
like
when
you
stop
by
a
booth
out
here,
like
you,
know,
you're
learning
something
but
they're
selling
you
something,
and
it's
kind
of
that's
essentially
kind
of
with
that
format,
that
what
shape
that
format
takes
I.
A
B
A
Right,
you
know
is
another
topic
for
discussion
and
that's
you
know
like
welcoming
others
to
kind
of
share
the
load.
Co.
Organizing,
you
know
how
Matt
you
know.
Should
you
have
12
co-organizers?
Is
that
good?
Is
that
too
much
dude?
Did
their
social
networks
begin
to
play
into
this
and
help
bring
the
right
content
partnering
with
other
meetups
some
so
we're
having?
This
is
I
didn't
even
know
that
I
had
these
examples,
but
so
this
month
in
Austin
we're
going
to
take
cloud
Austin
and
micro
services
in
containers.
A
A
You
didn't
know
if
you
guys
end
up
that
same
thing,
kind
of
happens
or
or
I
guess.
My
general
point
here
is
like
AI
think:
hey
you
do
want
to
share
the
load.
You
do
want
to
have
some
co-organizers.
It's
not
necessarily
like
your
founding
is
startup
and
you've
got
a
you
know
you
don't
want
to
share
the
share
of
the
pie
in
this
case,
like
I.
Think
sharing
that
pie
in
that
load
is
is
good.
A
You
know
that
they
bring
in
other
relationships.
They
hear
other
things,
anybody
you
know
so
some
meetups
do
have
separate
sites
like
cloud
Austin,
calm.
You
can
kind
of
go
and
learn
about
it.
Maybe
they
they
post
some
blogs
as
well,
and
to
me
this,
that
seems
like
a
lot
of
extra
work.
Meetup
com
is
kind
of
you
know,
sort
of
the,
but
that
said,
that's
just
you
know
I
have
seen
where
others
have
got
separate
sites
and
I.
A
Don't
know
that
you
guys
know
if
any
that's
provided
value
or
some
of
them
have
seen
like
their
own
Twitter
account,
which
to
me
feels
like
I
did
another
thing
to
maintain.
We
just
do
hashtags
for
the
most
part,
even
at
that,
like
most
of
time
you
get
engineers
who
are
in
the
room
and
don't
aren't
necessarily
social.
So
that's
actually
that
in
general
is
kind
of
an
issue
just
getting
folks
to
loosen
up
a
bit
and
be
social
is
kind
of
so
we've
alcohol
is
soft
and
served
at
our
meetups
attends.
A
The
hell
I,
don't
know
you
know,
I
think
you
know
just
reflecting
on
that.
For
a
second,
I
don't
know
that
most
meetup
goers
that
I
talked
to
are
pretty
forgiving
about
there,
not
being
food
or
not
being
drink
there.
But
I
also
think,
like
I
don't
know,
I
get
really
like
we
haven't,
had
an
issue
where
we
haven't
had
us
been
able
to
find
a
sponsor
and
get
food
and
whether
it's
like
sometimes
we'll
use
a
local
recruiting
agency
like
a
staff
augmentation
agency.
D
A
I
thought
I
was
good
point
out
these
two
programs
by
the
way,
just
disclosure
I'm,
a
CSE,
ncf
ambassador
I,
think
it's
a
good
program.
It
kind
of
takes
a
page
from
docker
captains
and
actually
your
face
looks
familiar
you're,
not
a
doctor
kept.
Oh,
you
are
okay,
yeah,
that's
right!
Yeah
and
pini
is
you
guys
have
got
doc
again
nice.
You
guys
spend.
B
A
A
A
I
will
say
another
way
that
I've
seen
meetups
get
speakers
is
through
as
an
offshoot
of
a
so
here
in
Seattle,
I
think
what
was
it
last
night
or
Monday
night
jovita
and
Craig
mcluckie
went
to
the
local
local
Cooper
Nettie's
meet
up
because
they
were
here
so
like
yeah.
If
you've
got
a
sometimes,
not
necessarily
not
not
poaching
speakers
from
the
conference,
but
just
they
want
another
Avenue
anyway,
they
prepared
something
yeah
I
would
yeah.
I
would
certainly
be
sense.
A
Having
worked
with
all
his
cone
a
fair
bit
and
trying
to
help
them
come
to
austin
and
not
be
successful,
and
we're
also
sensitive
to
not
not
trying
to
poach
their
speakers
so
that
people
don't
have
to
pay
to
go
to
the
conference
them
it's
a
generally
is
not
necessarily
that
sensitive
the
thing,
but
that's
one
way:
I
do
know
that
yeah
you
can.
There
are
just
even
reaching
out
to
the
individuals
that
are
listed.
You
know,
here's
how
boy.
D
A
That's
a
good
question:
I
feel
like
that's
somewhat
common
sense
on
their
part.
You
know
that
they
wouldn't
be
surprised.
If
you're
saying
you
know
it
may
be
a
way
to
just
not
even
address
it
directly,
but
it
sort
of
indirectly
say
hey.
We
really
try
to
facilitate
edification
of
our
attendees
and,
just
you
know,
general
knowledge
sharing
on
a
particular
topic
to
the
extent
that
you
are
able
to
convey
that
information.
A
But
you
know
by
an
example
of
your
product,
so
you
know
okay
and
to
the
extent
that
people
ask
more
questions
about
it
want
to
know
more
like
sometimes
that's.
That's
ended
up
happening
it
for
us
as
to
us,
as
well
as
they'll
they'll.
Give
the
slightest
of
the
speaker
will
give
the
slightest
of
teaser
about
kind
of
their
product,
and
then
people
will
just
like
asked
like
it
will
just
kind
of
turn
into
a
cell
which,
in
my
mind,
is
like
imperfect.
A
You
know
fantastic
because
and
as
a
you
know,
the
speaker
has
a
really
great
experience
as
well,
and
you
know,
everybody's
I
think
that's
kind
of
part
of
the
magic
trick
is
figuring
out
how
to
let
everybody
have
a
piece
of
the
slice
of
how
to
fit
everybody's
interests
a
little
bit
other
things
about
I.
Don't
even
mention
this,
but
some
of
these
programs
to
you'd
be
surprised.
You
can
get
some.
A
You
know
swag
and
other
things
kind
of
that
are
generally
available
and
for
free
I
think
that
sometimes
that's
kind
of
nice
tea
that
helps
get
some
butts
in
this,
to
the
extent
that
people
enjoy
the
food
that
some
miss
flag.
I
did
like
your
question,
though,
that
that
which
was
hate
is
there
a
balance
between
you?
Should
you
ask
people
in
the
community
to
step
up
and
speak
to
those
that
are
sitting
there,
and
we
certain
or
just
you
know
my
take
is
yeah.
We
certainly
do
as
well.
A
Sometimes
it
you
know
folks
are
a
little
bit
anxious
about
that.
Sometimes
I'm
just
trying
to
help
be
forgiving
and
help
them
along
also
just
saying
like.
If
you
get
a
lightning
talk,
maybe
just
like
it's
a
five
minute
deal
or
and
is
a
way
of
helping
generate
that,
to
the
extent
that
people
are
scared
to
step
up.
A
Please
see
what
the
other
okay!
Well.
Actually
let
me
let
me
skip
to
this
one.
Maybe
this
is
more
interesting,
especially
since
we're
got
about
five
minutes
left,
but
any
best
practices
or
maybe
areas
that
you
guys.
You
guys
have
asked
a
couple
of
questions
already
that
areas
that
you're
struggling
with
so
finding
good
quality
speakers
can
one
specific
to
your
area.
A
You'd
pointed
out,
like
hey
yeah,
how
to
be
what's
the
right
review
process
for
steering
people
we
a
lot
of
times.
We
do
ask
them
for
their
presentations
yeah,
so
we
asked
for
the
abstract
me
also,
just
like
you
know,
like
a
simple
statement
that
just
like
says,
hey
we're
we're
here
to
you
know
we're
in
education
or
whatever
that
your
goal
is
like
hey.
Our
goal
is
to.
B
C
A
A
A
A
third
or
two-thirds
raises
their
hand
like
first
time
and
or
they
barely
touch
containers,
and
so
it's
tough
to
like
you
almost
want
to
tell
people
up
front
and
we've
got
a
basic
talked
and
we've
got
an
advanced
talk
because
trying
to
hit
both
audiences
doesn't
really
another
thing.
Somebody
else
said
that
was
been
an
issue.
I
think
this
pini
had
said
was
yet
to
the
extent
that
you
get
the
same
core
group
coming
all
the
time.
A
They've
got
close
relationships
and
people
just
humans
just
naturally
go
over
and
start
talking
to
the
person
I
know
and
enjoying
it,
and
then
don't
realize
that
the
new
folks
coming
in
are
for
the
you
know.
Maybe
it's
their
first
meetup
like
ever
and
don't
feel
comfortable,
don't
feel
encouraged
to
be
there.
So
yeah
I
mean
one
of.